Etymology

overkill

O1V4E1R1K5I1L1L1

Today it means: A destructive capacity that exceeds that needed to destroy an enemy; especially with nuclear weapons. Full definition →

English kill ← Dutch ki ← Middle English over-
Ask AI about its historyChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

The story

  1. Proto-Indo-European*úp
  2. Proto-Indo-European*upér
  3. Proto-Germanic*uber
  4. Old Englishofer-
  5. Middle Englishover-
  6. Englishover-
  7. Dutchki
  8. Englishkill
  9. English todayoverkill

From over- + kill.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.